- With his new Kickstarter campaign, Rafael Chandler (Viewscream, Pandemonio) has combined two of his loves, fantasy RPGs and heavy metal music. Metallic Tome is a modern-day sourcebook for most Old School Revival games. “As radioactive pegasi soar through blood-red skies, adventurers seek glory in the Suburban Wastes and the Grim Northern Forests. Cyborg dragons bellow on top of shopping malls, and the sky is full of laser pentagrams.” Character classes can incorporate metal genres (Thrash Dwarves, Black Paladins, Death Rangers, Glam Wizards); locales include the Rue Morgue, Devil’s Island, and the Madhouse for the Criminally Insane; and there are monsters (Chill Devils, ORCs, Commercial Demons, and Asbestos Elementals), magical items (Power Drill of Wounding, Rock of Aegis, Ashtray of Many Things), and spells (Wall of Metal, Air Raid Siren, Impaled Blasphemy of Necrotic Desecration, Power Word Mosh). It’s “beer-and-pretzels fun,” says Rafael, “the kind of thing you run while you’ve got Powerslave cranked up.” He’s posted a free Metallic Tome preview on DriveThruRPG.
- Project Infinite Hole, a service-group sourcebook for the current edition of Paranoia, focuses on The Computer’s loyal servants in Research & Design. The boxed set adds new experimental devices to test (Fluffy Safety Armour, Jaws of Death, iEye), scientists to avoid, and safety rules to ignore. Mongoose Publishing has a free Project Infinite Hole preview (.PDF link).
- UK pop-culture empire Rebellion Ltd. — rather, its new tabletop and collectibles division, Rebellion Unplugged — is funding a new line of magazine-format tabletop RPGs. The Adventure Presents line kicks off with Tartarus Gate, an SFRPG by Grant Howitt and Chris Taylor (Spire, Crash Pandas, Paranoia) described as “The Office meets cosmic horror.” You’re an unpaid intern solving problems aboard the deep-space cargo ship Charon. “Replacing fuses, mopping up spills, unplugging things and plugging them in again, the usual. Things could be worse. Things could be much worse.”
- Russ “Morrus” Morrissey and EN Publishing have started strong with Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters, with over a hundred legendary figures statted for Fifth Edition. Compiled from Mike Myler’s weekly “Mythological Figures” colum on EN World, this 230-page 5E tome covers legendary celebrities from Achilles to Robin Hood, Thor to Dracula, King Arthur to Baba Yaga, along with a few historical notables like Billy the Kid.
Inspired by Studio Ghibli, Sandy Pug Games (The Boughs in the June 2018 Dungeon World 3 offer) is funding Monster Care Squad. The peaceful world of Ald-Amura is threatened when a mysterious poison known as the False Gold afflicts the world’s monsters. Maddening wounds drive these incredible beings into uncontrollable rages. You play as Monster Care Specialists, elite vets equipped with the knowledge to heal any wound. The bond of harmony and respect between Humans and Monsters is near collapse, and it’s up to you and your allies to set things right. Monster Care Squad uses a narrative-first system influenced by games such as Rhapsody of Blood, Ryuutama, and Ironsworn.- Vallis Mortis from Fat Dragon Games is a big new set of 3D-printable Dragonlock 28mm-scale terrain models for a campaign world created by Fat Dragon founder Tom Tullis. This Kickstarter features locations such as the village of Dragonshire, excursions into the depths of Shadowgrove, unholy shrines deep within Vallis Mortis, the wight-infested barrows of Barrowdeep, and more.
- At Game On Tabletop, a gamer-oriented crowdfunding site run by Black Book Editions in France, Ulisses Spiele is funding the new Tharkold sourcebook for Torg Eternity. Tharkold is the high-tech horror cosm, a wasteland of “domination, ferocity, and pain. Between the Blasted Land, the Mayhem Bloc, and the Wolflands, Tharkold isn’t exactly Hell, but it might as well be.”
Troll Lord Games is funding a new 5E-compatible version of the Castles & Crusades bestiary, Monsters & Treasure of Aihrde. “Though unique to the world of Aihrde, these monsters are completely portable. You can use them in any world, whether it is a homebrew game or published campaign setting.”- Steve Jackson Games is running a GURPS 2020 .PDF Challenge to fund a dozen new installments in the long-running GURPS lines Dungeon Fantasy Adventure, Reign of Steel, Hot Spots, and more. The buy-in is extraordinarily cheap — if the campaign unlocks all its goals before the clock runs out (13 July), patrons will get 12 .PDFs for just $3. Four supplements were unlocked in the campaign’s first hour, and at this writing (Day 3) nine of the twelve are unlocked.
